AUSTRALIA -- Co-sanctioning the Australian Open with Asia or Europe and moving the event away from Moonah Links are two proposals being considered for the national championship in order to make it more appealing to supporters and sponsors of Australian golf.

Both suggestions are high on the agenda of the board for Golf Australia - the newly formed entity from the recent amalgamation between the Australian Golf Union (AGU) and Women's Golf Australia (WGA) - that now administers amateur golf.

John Buckley, a spokesperson for the six-member interim board that will coordinate the roll out of Golf Australia over the next two years, spoke candidly in an exclusive interview to iseekgolf.com about issues facing the sport in this country. And topping the list is the future of the organisation's flagship - the Australian Open.

It is three decades since Jack Nicklaus called the event golf's fifth major. In the late-1970s, the Open seemed on the right path when Kerry Packer sponsored the tournament at The Australian Golf Club in Sydney and many leading players from America made the trip Down Under.

Buckley acknowledged the Open's shortcomings and has foreshadowed a time for a new approach: "I think the most common complaint is the quality of the field. And why can't we get Mickelson and Woods and Els and Garcia? And the simple answer is we can't afford to pay them to come. And it is at the end of their very busy year. All of these things have been well and truly publicised before."

"I think it's got to change. But I think it can only change if our event is co-sanctioned or to use Greg Norman's dream of having a World Tour where these players are obligated to come down and play. When these fellows are playing in America for $US4 million every week, what's suddenly going to appeal to them at the end of their season to come and play for a million-and-a-half Aussie dollars? It's a pity but it's a fact of life."

"If we were co-sanctioned with one of the major tours of the world, be it Asia, be it European (it would be impractical to imagine us being part of the US Tour), if that was to happen we would obviously get a boost in international players and in addition, of course, is an improvement in prizemoney."

The AGU once held the ambition that Moonah Links would be the permanent home of the Australian Open. Outgoing executive director Colin Phillips conceded recently the venue on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula would hold the Open "probably not more than one in three years".

However, even that may be wishful thinking. "I've got to say to you that I think we've got to re-think that. I really do," Buckley says. "We have an obligation to take it [the Open] around the country. And I also strongly believe that you've got to have your Open championship quite close to the major cities."

He describes Moonah Links as "slightly inaccessible", hindering the chances of luring big-name sponsors, which use the Open for corporate hospitality and the opportunity to entertain clients. He thinks the six other board members hold the same view.

"Look, the facility is wonderful. If you talk about the [Australian] Institute of Sport facility, that's world-class. The accommodation is excellent and you've got two good golf courses down there, particularly the Open course. But in the view of a number of our potential sponsors, it's just too far out of town. And that's coming from people like IMG, who are our partner. And if they're finding it difficult to attract sensible sponsorship because of its position, geographically, I mean where do we go from here?"

"We've got many opportunities. Kingston Heath would love it. Metropolitan would love it. Royal Sydney would love it. And you wouldn't have to do too much talking to convince Royal Adelaide to have it and [Lake] Karrinyup to have it - if you really wanted to be national about it, which happens to be my view."

Meanwhile, Buckley revealed an independent chairperson would be announced shortly, probably before the end of November. That person will head the board of six, which is made up of three men chosen by the AGU - Buckley (NSW), Tom Crothers (QLD) and David Martin (SA) - and three nominees from the WGA - Vivien Beer (VIC), Carol Humphreys (NSW) and Judy Onto (VIC). The board, which will be in existence for at least two years, sits above a 13-member council that has weighted state representation.

Despite all six board members hailing from upper-echelon private clubs, Buckley dismissed the suggestion that it would impede the organisation's ability to deal with issues at a grass-roots level. "Definitely not. I think the board has a degree of open-mindedness where they won't be duly directing their attention to the elite clubs."

The forced merger between the AGU and WGA was due to pressure from the Australian Sports Commission, which threatened to withdraw funding that amounted to approximately $1.6 million annually. After four years of talks, the two bodies agreed to the amalgamation rather than sacrifice money that has been used to finance the highly successful development programs for elite amateurs each year.

Now, though, the pressing concern facing the interim board is the supposed crisis of golf-club membership around the nation. While overall numbers are deemed to have reached a plateau, the concern is that, increasingly, golfers are opting for the pay-to-play option. This has been at the expense of golf-club membership at many less fashionable clubs, which are struggling to retain their numbers.

Buckley says the new board will address ways to salvage that trend and get more people into clubs. However, he is not overly alarmed by the figures, saying that clubs must look at themselves differently in an ever-evolving society. In turn, he says, recent efforts to make handicaps available to social golfers have created a Catch-22 situation.

"The [Federal] Government gave us some money some time ago to set up Golf Access," Buckley says. "And Kevin Tangey and his team at the AGU have certainly been pushing that barrow - and with success. But it's in its infancy and it's going to take a little bit of time to reap the benefits. But that's primarily structured to get the non-affiliated golfer to be aware of the benefits of being a member of a club."

So what would Buckley like to see achieved in the first 12 months of Golf Australia's formation? "I would like to see a common handicapping and course-rating system. At this moment, there is a difference between men and women. I would like to see men and women playing in the same competition."

"And I would like to see a much greater improvement in the publicity golf gets in the media. If you compare us to other sports, we're not just unfairly reported, we're just not reported at all. I think we do have to make the public much more aware. It's only through the medium of television and print that we're going to get to that stage. I would say that marketing the product and getting more acceptability amongst our friends in the press would be something that I would put high on my list of priorities."